Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Overlooked Movies -- Norwood

Someone who must have thought that it was the hot combo of Glen Campbell and Kim Darby that made the original version of True Grit such a big hit had the great idea of putting them into another movie based on a book by Charles Portis, the author of True Grit. And someone who was even more clever thought of the one thing that would make the pairing even better: add Joe Namath to the mix. And this time, let Glen sing a bunch of songs. What could possibly go wrong?Well, it would depend on your mood. If you're feeling uncritical (as I usually am), you can have a little fun. The supporting cast, including Leigh French, Carol Lynley, Pat Hingle, and Dom DeLuise, is great, and there are some amusing scenes. The chicken from the book is included, for example, and so is The World's Smallest Perfect Man. Even some of the stuff that's not from the book is amusing, like Namath and The World's Smallest Perfect Man tossing the old pigskin around. Namath isn't much of an actor, and neither is Campbell, but they both have nice screen presences, and Campbell's songs are okay. (In the novel, Norwood talks about being a singer but doesn't sing; in the movie he sings a lot.) The plot, such as it is, borrows from the book, which also doesn't have much of a plot, but departs from it considerably.I suggest reading the novel. Then you can watch the movie for free on YouTube some day when you have nothing better to do. I like the poster above, which makes the movie look like a bromance between Campbell and Namath. Very misleading, since Namath is in the movie hardly at all, just at the beginning and near the end.

5 comments:

Steve Oerkfitz
said...

Awful movie. I found the first True Grit ruined by the non acting of Campbell and the annoying performance by Kim Darby. Add the non acting ability of Namath and you have an even worse movie. There is a good reason Namath, Campbell and Darby had rather short movie careers.

In general, I have to agree with Steve. Watching Joe Namath try to act is just painful. But in checking Wikipedia, I see that he has "acted" in a summer stock production of FIDDLER ON THE ROOF! Oy vey. Now that would be something to see.

And while I was never a big fan of Kim Darby, it is wrong to suggest her career was anywhere near as limited as Campbell's or Namath's.